The Visibility of an Indigenized Curriculum during Covid 19 New Zealand. An Exploration of the Experience from Indigenous Academics

Abstract

The 2020 Covid19 global pandemic disrupted teaching practices of 8 universities and 16 Institutes of Technology and Polytechnics (ITPs) in New Zealand. This disruption led to the curriculum being transferred from internal classes to online delivery. It unleashed a surge of research activity and publications in the education sector. However, little research was conducted to investigate the effect to the academic experience and even less research explored the impact to Indigenized curriculums. This paper explored websites for the visibility of Indigenous programmes and Indigenous academic experiences. It does this by: 1) describing the 8 universities and 16 Polytechnics for context; 2) identifying the type of Indigenous Schools/Faculties in universities and ITPs and whether Indigenous programmes of study were visible; 3) two authors providing personal accounts as Indigenous academics moving from internal teaching to online delivery. Specific mention is made of an Indigenous avatar named “Digi Hami from NZ.” The exploration utilized a M?ori-Centered and social research approach. The analysis drew main themes and suggested that some universities and ITPs were better prepared in the transition and the virtual mode of teaching was unable to retain the same quality and depth of learning required for an Indigenized curriculum.